Bracted Stone Flower is a newly discovered plant which
is quite similar to
Humboldt's Stone Flower in
the shape of its leaves, and in having flowering stems much longer
than the leaves. However, it can be distinguished by its flower-cymes
having a larger number of flowers (14-38), its large elliptic to
obovate bracts, ovate sepals, and the presence of eglandular hairs at
the junction of the anther lobes and filaments. It is a perennial
stemless herb, with rootstocks. Leaves are 8-14, basal; leaf-stalk 2-9
cm long, velvet-hairy, winged, wings 2-3 mm wide; leaf blade
elliptic-ovate, 5.5-12.5 x 3-9 cm, thick, surfaces usually wrinkled,
both surfaces velvet-hairy, but more so on younger leaves. Flowers are
zygomorphic, 10-20 x 4-9 mm. Calyx 5(or 6)-partite, very deeply divided
or basally fused; sepals reddish brown, ovate, 3-4 x 1-2 mm, unequal,
white woolly, margin entire, tip slightly pointed. Flowers are
bell-shaped, 5-lobed, hairy out- side, hairless inside; tube lilac to
pale lilac with a yellow patch in throat, 7-9 x 5.5-7.5 mm; petals pale
lilac to lilac, 5.2-7 x 7.4-8.3 mm, unequal, tip ovate to rounded.
Bracts are 2 at each branching point, elliptic to obovate, 10-21 x 5-8
mm, woolly, margin rounded toothed, tip obtuse to rounded. Bracted
Stone Flower is endemic to the S Western Ghats, currently known only
from Kurisumala in Kottayam district of Kerala.
Identification credit: S. Kasim, Janeesha Mohideenkoya
Photographed in Wagaman, Kerala.
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The flower labeled Bracted Stone Flower is ...